Bills of materials are used in manufacturing for a variety of activities. A bill of material (BOM) may define the parts to be used in a particular product (engineering bill of materials), the parts to be ordered from suppliers to build a particular product (purchasing bill of materials), the parts to be assembled or installed to build a particular product (manufacturing bill of materials), or the parts that are needed to maintain a particular product (service bill of materials). The different types of BOMs that a business uses depend in part on the business's needs, the types of products that the business manufactures, and the manufacturing processes that the business uses. For example, in automotive manufacturing, the BOM typically lists the parts, supplies, and materials that are needed to manufacture a particular model of automobile. Different BOMs are developed and maintained for the different models that are manufactured.
One type of BOM that some automotive manufacturers use is a delivery BOM. In addition to specifying the parts, supplies, and materials that are needed to assemble a particular model of an automobile, the BOM has delivery data that specifies how and where the parts are to be delivered from a materials service location to a particular location on the production or assembly line. The delivery data may specify details regarding the organization of containers for delivering the parts as well as a specific line location where the part containers should be delivered.
The delivery BOM may need to be updated frequently to reflect various changes to the data that may occur. For example, if the manufacturer changes suppliers for a particular part, the delivery BOM must be updated to reflect the change in part data and possibly the related delivery data. Parts may be redesigned from time-to-time which may also require updates to the delivery BOM to distinguish between the new part and old part. Related delivery data may also need to be changed. Finally, changes to assembly processes may require changes to delivery data.
Ensuring that the data in a delivery BOM is accurate and reflects any changes that have occurred can be a time consuming and labor intensive process. Parts data and delivery data may be maintained in different databases. Some manufacturers generate delivery BOMs by accessing data from multiple data sources, adding it to a spreadsheet, and then manually reviewing and updating the spreadsheet to reflect changes that may be present in the data sources. This approach is problematic for a variety of reasons. First, it is time intensive and requires associate time to manually manipulate files. Second, the manual movement of data means that mistakes are easy to make but difficult to detect. Third, it is almost impossible to verify all production line locations have appropriate delivery data. The labor intensive approach simply makes it difficult to maintain accurate data.
There is a need for a computerized system and method for generating a delivery BOM that solves the problems identified above. There is a need for a computerized system and method for generating a delivery BOM that can accept parts data, delivery data, and other data from different sources and combine the parts data, delivery data, and other data as needed into a single delivery BOM. There is a need for a computerized system and method for generating a delivery BOM that reduces the labor involved in generating a delivery BOM and that has accurate information. There is a need for a computerized system and method that supports generation and maintenance of delivery BOMs for different products and models that are manufactured.